I have a simple idea for my blog today. I come by this idea because of a horrible night’s rest. Shortly before it was time for me to get up for work, I had a disturbing dream. When I woke up (after nearly jumping the to the ceiling thanks to that particularly terrifying dream along with the alarm clock going off and the exact right moment) I thought to myself, wow, that could make quite a storyline for a book—not the kind I write, but something Stephen King fans could appreciate.
A commonly asked question of an author is “Where do you come up with your ideas?”
So I wanted to ask everyone out there, where are some of the places or what are some of the things that helped you to come up with ideas for writing?
Did you “dream” them up? Did ideas pop up as you were writing along? Did you pick a profession and base a story around it? Or did your ideas come from a personal experience? I would love to hear where everyone has come up with material for writing – be it articles, poems, books, anything you wish to share with us.
While we’re sharing, I’ll start the ball rolling.
My first book was based on a profession. I thought cops were cool. I have a ton of personal added touches to my first book but, there you go… the storyline idea itself was because of a “cool profession”.
My second book was a little of the same. The main character was into landscaping. My dad has a real knack for yard design so the idea to have her involved with that was because of my dad. Again, more personal added touches too, but…
My third book is totally family history stuff but changed a bit to fit the storyline. I will say on this one I had no idea as I was writing what the meaning of the “mystery” was as I was writing it. (Sorry, that may seem confusing but I don’t want to give anything away to those who haven’t read it. No spoilers here! J I usually have an idea of who dunnit, how, and why they did it, but on my last book, there were a few things that I didn’t know the meaning of as I wrote them. The mystery was a mystery even to me. I have to say that I really had fun not knowing what I was going to end up with (though at times it was frustrating and nerve wracking) and in the end I had to go back and fill in a lot of holes to make it all work together. But it was a lot of fun to write that way.
The book I SHOULD (the keyword here is should) be working on is-- hmmm, I guess I’d say I just think there’s a story worth telling and hopefully I can find a way to tell it that does this group of people justice.
So that’s my story in a nutshell. I would love to read about yours.
About that dream… it’ll never “go” anywhere but it may stop me from “going” back to sleep tonight. ICK!
So, what about you? Where do you come up with your ideas?
1 comment:
Jeri, it's interesting to learn how we all come up with ideas. Mine happen in a variety of ways. Sometimes a storyline will pop into my head out of the blue, like the one I'm working on now. Others come to life because I'm upset about something (that was the inspiration behind "Kate's Turn.")and I want to make a point.
Great post.
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